DMSP

Yep, don't worry, I know the place. It's KSC 2, except upgraded in my save. Best zoomed in picture:

Ahhh! Have we even developed Nuclear Engines yet? And I'm not sure! We only have one photo!

Well, that's unfortunate. Personally I really like stories that have more photos, and I was actually reading this, but if you feel that way, it's probably better to stop. If you have some ideas feel free to share because I would love to see some more stories. DMSP.

Ok, @max_creative, @OrbitalBuzzsaw, @KerbalOmmex and @SpaceplaneAddict, it's the chapter we've all been waiting for. Chapter 25.5-Jeb takes a bath. No. Really. Chapter 26-New Heights. It was time to come back to nice, scientific exploration after the staff took a week off, mostly due to stress. Using a newly developed test launcher, the prototype Kliper reusable spacecraft was strapped on. Jeb and Val were the only Kerbal on this thing. Why this launch was risking the program's two pilots was not known. There was actually no good reason. But if everything went well, everything would be just fine. So Kliper-1 lifted off from the launchpad, traveling to develop the new spaceplane that could one day be a huge backbone. The flight required Jeb and Val to pitch over at 40 kilometers and burn back towards the surface, heading westward. They did this just fine, dumping the booster at more than one kilometer per second. The reentry was most impressive, burning away parts of the ship's ablator. Kerbals across the continent looked up in awe. But soon it was over, and Kliper-1 began its landing procedures. Jeb and Val both relied on the instruments and a single camera watching over the front of the spacecraft. But they made it, softly touching down on the grassy plains, a few dozen kilometers from the space center. The week progressed slowly. The results from the Kliper flight were taken back, and everything seemed good for mass production of the spacecraft. Soon, a campaign was started for the launch of Private-2. Kathena Space Industries signed up, with 3 new CubeSats ready to go. The space program added the more advanced version of TellHydrogen, TellDeuterium, on this lifter too. But two new companies came forward. The United Kerbnada Space Agency wanted to push forward, they were extremely ambitious, wanting to hit Eve with their first probe. The problem was UKSA did not have a lifter that could do it. So they signed up in the "special offers" section, and since the second stage would be wasted in LKO anyways, it was agreed that the stage would boost the MicroSat Falcon to Eve. Both of KSI's standard Hera CubeSats would tag along as well. The second, Buzzsaw Aerospace, was also being ambitious. They wanted to test their space telescope technology-but in space! They wanted to launch a test telescope, the Alec Kerman Memorial Space Telescope, by mapping Kerbin. So Private-2 was prepared. Another Butane was rolled out. It was time to go. And so, let's go. Private-2 launched successfully from the Kerbal Space Center, carrying 6 probes in one launch, by far the most ever. The launch was incredibly successful, but all these launches were putting the space program behind in funds. They were not going to be able to keep this rate without cheaper alternatives. The craft arrived in space well, except for one complication. One of the Alec Kerman Memorial Telescope's (AKMT from now on) solar panels was destroyed. Reassurances went around that it would operate on one panel, but the loss was still unfortunate. All of the crews, from 4 different companies, space agencies, and space programs, started cheering. 400 m/s to orbit. 300. 200. 100 now. And all of a sudden, engine cutoff. Private-2 was in orbit. An incredible cheer went across the Kerbals. This experience was truly unifying. But Orbital Operations still had to commence. The heaviest of the probes was TellDeuterium, and it was set off first. It would head upwards to High Kerbin Orbit. Next was the AKMT, which went off on its way perfectly. Once it had cleared the crowded second stage, AKMT was passed off to Buzzsaw Aerospace. Multiple times over many orbits, it maneuvered to a polar orbit. Back at Private-2, a new CubeSat was deployed. Named Hestia-1, a new line of expeditionary CubeSats, its journey was large. Hestia-1 would go to the Mün. With the last of those probes gone, Private-2 turned outwards, and ignited its engine. It reached escape velocity soon afterwards, and began its flight towards Eve. The transfer window was far from optimal, but a complex flight-path with multiple maneuvers would allow MicroSat Falcon to get to Eve just fine. Hera-7 was released an hour later. And so, this was the last time both MicroSat Falcon and Hera-8 would ever see Kerbin. But this goodbye was fine, as they would find a new home, around Eve. A few hours later, Hestia-1 was falling towards the Mün. It was meant to impact it, but that didn't stop KSI controllers from trying to slow down. The CubeSat was decoupled after the fuel ran out, traveling at 300 meters per second. Right before impacting the surface, it transmitted a final photograph of a canyon, the first ever seen on the Mün. Nice! Around a day later, Private-2 left Kerbin's SOI. And finally, back in polar LKO, the AKMT began mapping Kerbin. Everything was good. Gene Kerman was once again, exhausted from the celebrations, meetings, interviews and parties following such a massive launch. He was slouching in his chair, on the brink of going to sleep, when someone knocked on his office door. "Come in!" he called out. A young intern came in. "Gene, a Kerbal from Buzzsaw Aerospace was in Darmstadtium, and she recognized me from the party. She gave me a closed envelope." He handed the envelope over to Gene, who just looked up at him. "I haven't opened it, I promise." "Thanks." was all he could say, as he just couldn't remember this Kerbal's name he made a mental note to find out what it was. Gene opened the envelope. There were two cards in it, no note, nothing. They were blank. Then Gene realized that they had been put in the wrong side up. Whoever was sending this had really been in a rush. He turned them over, focusing on the first one. 'What had the AKMT found?' he wondered. Gene's heart kipped a beat on the second photo. "Is tha..." A surge of fear and nausea went over him. "Moho."

Yep, it's getting very "interesting" over here. I do try. Well, don't prepare for War, we don't know what will happen yet! Can't assure anything except for Private-2 worked.

Private-3. It will launch on Private-3. Now, I'm here to give you guys a new chapter. Chapter 25-Minty Minmus. The space program had gone on for almost 210 days now, and although there had been multiple flights to the Mun, Minmus still sat silent, cold and alone in High Kerbin Orbit. Until the launch of Mina-1. Mina-1 was the next step upwards and outwards. It was also the debut of the Butane lifter. The launch was more than successful, with much more fuel in the second stage than was expected. So Mina-1, an orbiter, relay and scanner all in one, shot away from Kerbin, to Kerbin's second closest neighbor. Only a day or so afterwards, the second Butane lifter was brought out of the VAB, and launched, carrying Mina-2 to space. Mina-2's ejection burn went just fine, putting it on a Minmus entry course. With not much else to do, most of the staff at the KSC were allowed a break. The past few weeks had been quite stressful, after-all. 10 days later, Mina-1 entered Minmus' SOI. Within a day of that, Mina-2 met up with Minmus as well. Mina-1, nearing periapsis, began its capture burn, which it completed with ease. The probe then left its arrival stage behind, and completed the maneuvers itself, placing it in the orbit that was needed to Map Minmus. Mina-2 ditched its fairing and second stage upon nearing periapsis. Its next burn would put it on a landing trajectory into Minmus' flats. And so it headed towards the flats. Mina-2 began its slow suicide burn at 1,300 meters. It touched down on the ice of Minmus a minute later. This space program had become the first on two different bodies. The rover was then deployed, but it was found the front wheels had been destroyed when the fairing was ditched. Oh well. It was a good try. Back at Kerbin, Gene had just come back to his office from the celebration party in the parking lot, and later, the Astronaut Complex. A Kerbal, maybe 30, 32, walked in. She didn't introduce herself, and though Gene still had booked this meeting, this Kerbal still came as a shock to him. "Hello Gene. I'm here to discuss matters with you that are most important to both your program, our military, and this country." She passed him a small folder containing 6 files. Gene opened, it skim reading it at first, until he came to the engineering section. His eyes opened wider than usual. "Oh my." Was all he could say. Soon, the Governor-1 missile was rolled out onto the launch pad, and its launch platforms were set up. With government officials watching over, the stressful Kerbals in mission control set up the final launch preparations, which led to the missile being successfully launched towards the stars. It, of course, would never get there. High in the upper atmosphere, the booster burned as much fuel as it could, pulling hard, and gaining speed. It broke the atmospheric entry record, reaching 3.6 km/s, and soon after, Governor-1 broke up and was destroyed. Some Kerbals celebrated, but others in mission control were silent. Space exploration was supposed to be peaceful. But everyone was wondering, would it stay that way? For now, yes, they hoped.

4 (+)

This. @OrbitalBuzzsaw, Chapter 26 will probably be on Sunday or Monday afternoon, depending on the weekend. It could come as early as Saturday though. @max_creative, don't worry, I think Private-3 will launch just fine. The lifter is relatively new, but I have successfully gotten 13 payloads to orbit. No failures (apart from a random engine cutoff that I still haven't figured out, and even with that cutoff, the rocket made it to space. Mission was a success.

Haha! Like oops, I forgot to put it on the lifter, and now I didn't even get it to orbit! Sorry! In reality, don't worry, it's not. It's more fun (or not fun, depending on how you look at it).

Currently, 0. Nobody is dead yet.

I have 6 Governour-1 missiles ready to launch. Be prepared. That is quite a heavy cruiser, use it carefully! "Sure" it "totally" has reached that orbit. EveSat is on a course for Eve, arriving in 1 year and 116 days. No need. And you guys still do probably want a sneak peak, so:

May I ask, @AlphaAsh, how would you be able to make a small airstrip in KSP? I have never modded before, but I need a small airstrip in my game, on the other end of the continent the KSC in on. If I wanted a dirt airstrip like the Level 1 Runway at the KSC, how would I put it there? Could I use the texture and model from the L1R? I figured you were good at this, so I just wanted to ask that. Thanks!

2 (+)

Yeah, that was a interesting game. Alright, good luck checking up on everything!

It's 4 Descent Stages from Raptor9's LV-3 Series.

@RainDreamer, @Deutherius And @Dman979, Will Spaceception and I be valid for the medal of dishonor?

96 (+)

@Raptor9, I have checked out your LV-3 series in 1.1.2, and the LV-3A and B work like charms. The LV-3Cs all work fine too! I only needed to offset the lander sligtly up to prevent clipping, but I have constructed a base with One Habitat, Two Passageways, One Airlock and One Utility Module. Here is a photo of Descent Stages 1-4.

It's a part from Tantares, an older part from 1.0.5, that was never even included in the official download. Sorry, I wish I could, but not yet!

95 (+)

93 (+) Not rigged, but rather too hard this round. That reinforcement call-in really made the difference.

93 (+) Now 7.

92 (+) 8 to go!

Private-2 has been launched, Private-3 is still on the launch waiting list. Private-2's launch is Chapter-26.

Well, we'll just have to wait and see. Or perhaps we will never know... Sorry to keep you guys waiting, Private-2's launch and it's probe's flights are in Chapter 26. You'll see it by Monday, for sure. And @max_creative, @Andem, and @KerbalOmmex, the "missile" is a lot less exciting than that. See below. Chapter 24-A real spaceplane. The destruction of the Rene Target Station was, at first, a huge secret. It wasn't until some amateur astronomers in Darmstadtium looked up where the Rene Target Station should have been. They alerted the media, which led to a lot of questioning, which finally led to Marmy breaking and telling the truth. Rene was gone. There was so much speculation and mystery around the whole thing that nobody was for sure. Many said that the small piece of space-rock in orbit vented a gas, making it "maneuver" towards the station. A few thought that it could have been a satellite from DMSP that had destroyed the station, but the space program had a catalogue of everything. Lastly, some conspiracy theorists said that it was an Anti-Station weapon launched by an enemy space program. But there were no 'enemies' and definitely no centers capable of launching a rocket. So, with nothing else to do, scientists pushed forward with the next launch, InterComms-1. InterComms-1 was created to provide a communications relay for future interplanetary missions, and it would orbit between Kerbin and Eve. It also carried two more CubeSats from Kathena Space Industries, Hera-3, and Hera-4. Hera-3 was dumped in LKO. InterComms-1 and Hera-4 then continued towards interplanetary space, hopefully one day providing a stable network for future missions. Hera-4 was then left behind in Interplanetary space. And back to Kerbin. The next launch was that of Oisac-1, a privately built satellite. The company launching it was Kathena Space Industries, hoping to launch their first non-CubeSat to the Mün. The singular side booster was angled to help the launch and get Oisac-1 to space whilst getting it Eastward velocity. It didn't happen that way. Oisac-1 started to turn East. More east. So far east. This wasn't supposed to happen. The side booster was ditched, but it was too late. Oisac-1 broke up over the sea, less than a kilometer from shore. The second loss of spacecraft in three weeks. Not good. The public was loosing both faith and attention. Rene was very widely liked, even if it wasn't the fault of the space program, Rene's loss was blamed on them. Now Kathena Space Industries had just lost their cute Mün probe that they were so excited about. Something was needed. Something grand, something that would capture everybody's attention. Something big, something new, something innovated. So the X-4 was put up for its final flight. It had served well, but it was not suitable for the long term. It flipped easily, wanted to spin around when the pilot touched the controls, and did not have the best safety rating. But a final flight would do this space program good. It was definitely a incredible launch. Using the 6 of the newest engines on the market, the payload, consisting of The X-4 Orbital Flight test (which was also the name of this mission) along with an identical copy of Oisac-1, which was called Oisac-1. Here we see some serious originality. The rocket punctured the thin upper atmosphere, and ended up in a stable low equatorial orbit. What a success that launch was. Almost 2 million watched it live, whilst 5,122 came to see the launch. Trust in the program had been settled once again. Oisac-1, soon after decoupling from the stack, shot off towards the Mün, in search of Rocks, 90Th and Funds. Why Thorium? I don't know. Back in LKO, the the unmanned X-4 continued Orbital studies. The pressure of the crew cabin held steady, showing the hard work that would lead to the safety of any Kerbal sitting there. But after only 6 orbits, there was nothing left to do, and mission control gave the X-4 flight team deorbitation clearance. The Skipper engine ignited for the final time, starting the descent of this heroic mission. Atmospheric entry was not covered in sudden flames, as most people expected. The three cruise ships underneath the X-4 were a bit let down, but they continued to watch the reentry unfold. Then it started to get hot. The X-4 survived. It took no reentry damage, just a few heated parts, mostly because the draggy air-frame didn't give the components a chance to overheat. It touched down 1 hour, 32 minutes and 9 seconds after liftoff. What a mission. About 4 hours later, Oisac-1 began its retrograde burn into Low Munar Orbit. It successfully pulled into the required orbit, starting a new chapter in space exploration history, a huge step in private space exploration, and a awesome jump for the space program. The conclusion of the early X-program happened officially 2 days later. So much was learned about lifting bodies, and the fruit of this program was a wonder. The Kliper Reusable Spacecraft.